Richmond cop's job still on line

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Richmond cop's job still on line


[published on Wed, Apr 27, 2005]
By OWEN R. BRUGH

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RICHMOND – Police Officer Brian Quilici will have to wait about a week before finding out whether he still has a job with the village.

The village Police Commission on Tuesday delayed making a decision on Quilici's fate until all three members could attend the meeting. commission member Tom VanDaele was absent.

The commission will schedule a special meeting to decide Quilici's fate within a week or so, commission Chairman Kevin Thomas said.

Quilici was placed on administrative leave March 16 because of allegations stemming from a Feb. 20 beating in Fox Lake.

During the altercation, Quilici, a Spring Grove police officer, and a McHenry County sheriff's deputy handcuffed and beat 25-year-old Ryan Hallett in the parking lot at KC's Cabin on Route 173, according to a federal lawsuit filed by Hallett.

The beating shattered the orbital bone around Hallett's right eye.

"It's going to be a long haul for him, but he is improving," Hallett attorney Russell Ainsworth said.

Quilici, the village of Richmond, and the two other officers alleged to be involved are named in the lawsuit.

Quilici has had run-ins related to fighting and drunken-driving allegations with police in Crystal Lake and Richmond, according to police and court records. However, Quilici was charged only once, and that case resulted in a dismissed drunken-driving charge and an expunged record.

Richmond Police Chief Roger Szewczyk also has been placed on administrative leave until he retires April 30. A third full-time officer is on light duty because of a knee injury, and interim Police Chief Rich Contant said the remaining two full-time officers were stretched thin.

So far, Contant said, he has been able to cover shifts with the village's eight part-time officers.

Although the village has a list of possible new hires, Contant said, he will wait until the new village president, Lauri Olson, is sworn in May 4 before hiring anyone.

"Hopefully, by the middle of May, we can get this all resolved," Contant said.

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Witness says man hit while cuffed

www.nwherald.com/MainSection/345920307920165.php

[published on Wed, Aug 9, 2006]
WOODSTOCK – The KC's Cabin bartender on duty the night that three ex-cops are accused of beating Ryan Hallett testified Tuesday that after what investigators call a vicious attack in the bar's parking lot, two officers carried a handcuffed Hallett to the front of the bar and continued to kick, stomp and hit the man with their handcuffs.


Heather Miller, who has worked at the pub for eight years, delivered the most detrimental blow to former officer Brian Quilici's case on the first day of the jury trial stemming from the Feb. 20, 2005, incident.

"They pushed [Hallett] down on the ground and began hitting and kicking him," she said. "He seemed limp ... He was in the fetal position and wasn't moving at all."

Hallett, the alleged victim in the beating, also took the stand and told jurors that he tried to break up a fight between the officers and his friend, and he pulled a pocket knife in the parking lot because he wanted to get away.

Hallett said he remembered lying face down while being handcuffed when Quilici kicked him in the face.

"[Quilici] then said 'You're lucky. If I would have had my gun I would have shot you,' " Hallett said.

Quilici, a former Richmond and Spring Grove officer, is the first of four co-defendants charged in the alleged beating to go to trial on the aggravated battery, mob action, official misconduct, and obstructing justice charges.

Also charged are former Spring Grove officer Ronald Pilati, 34, former Lincolnshire and Spring Grove officer Jerome Volstad, 41, and Jessica Thelen, 29. Pilati, Volstad and Thelen still await trial.

Hallett, who works for a Woodstock excavating company, told jurors that after drinking as many as 14 drinks at other places earlier in the evening, he arrived at Fox Lake bar shortly before 2:45 a.m.

Upon arriving, Hallett said that he first noticed that his friend was involved in an altercation with Quilici, Pilati and Volstad, none of whom Hallett said he knew before that night.

Hallett, along with his friend and Miller, testified Tuesday that he approached the men and tried to break up the shouting match.

"Then Quilici got in my face and pushed me," Hallett said. "I pushed him back."

Bar employees stopped the incident and Hallett said he and his friend left shortly after last call, which was about 2:45 a.m. Hallett said that he walked his friend to his car and sent him home.

While walking to his truck, which was parked on the other side of the parking lot, Hallett admitted that he intentionally walked by the officers and "exchanged words."

Hallett said that while walking away from the officers he took out his pocket knife and assembled it, when he noticed the officers following him.

"I knew that they weren't going to leave me alone, and I felt that I needed to get out of there," Hallett said. "I showed them [my knife] and told them I was going to leave and not to follow me."

Hallett then explained that a "hysterical and screaming" Thelen ran directly toward him and grabbed his arms. Hallett said he pushed Thelen to the ground, which caused Quilici, Pilati and Volstad to all attack him.

Hallett said he lost consciousness sometime during the attack and next remembered Fox Lake police picking him up off the ground. Hallett underwent two surgeries on his face, which contained multiple broken bones.

Quilici's attorney Vincent Solano has attacked Hallett's story by trying to paint him as the aggressor, and said he will call an expert who will say that the former officers were justified in their use of force.

"Do I feel sorry for Ryan Hallett? Absolutely not," Solano told the jury during his opening statement. "Does Brian Quilici? Absolutely not. We're here today prosecuting the wrong person. At the end, you're going to go back in that jury room and say, 'What did we do here all week?' "


By ROB PHILLIPS

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Witnesses: Cop urged quiet after fight

www.nwherald.com/MainSection/286771300921677.php

WOODSTOCK – After Melissa Cross watched Brian Quilici and two other former police officers repeatedly kick Ryan Hallett's face, stomach and groin in a parking lot, Quilici came to her car with a message.

"He said, 'I bet that was a side of me that you never thought you would see,' " said Cross, who dated Quilici. "He said, 'Go ahead and leave, the police are on their way. If anyone asks, tell them that you were already gone and didn't see anything.' "

In the second day of testimony in Quilici's trial for aggravated battery, mob action, official misconduct and obstructing justice, a second witness testified that Quilici told her to keep quiet about the fight on Feb. 20, 2005, outside KC's Cabin, a bar in Fox Lake.

Jurors also were told Wednesday that Quilici twice kicked a bartender who tried to break up the fight, and that Fox Lake police questioned only the former officers about the incident, ignoring normal procedures for investigating such an attack.

Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday afternoon and Quilici's attorney is expected to call his first witness this morning .

Quilici, a former Richmond and Spring Grove police officer, is the first of four people – three of whom are former police officers – charged in connection with beating Hallett. If convicted of the most serious charge, Quilici could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Also charged, and still awaiting trial, are former Spring Grove officer Ronald Pilati, 34, former Lincolnshire and Spring Grove officer Jerome Volstad, 41, and Jessica Thelen, 29.

On Tuesday, Hallett testified that his confrontation with the four arose because one of his friends was in a verbal altercation with them when he arrived at the bar. Hallett also admitted he intentionally walked by the officers in the parking lot and "exchanged words" with them. Hallett has filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Quilici, Volstad and Pilati, as well as the villages of Richmond and Spring Grove.

Quilici's attorney Vincent Solano said that Hallett, who admitted to showing his pocketknife that night, was the aggressor and had ample opportunity to leave the bar without incident.

"You are able to meet force with an equal amount of force," Solano said. "Any officer will tell you that [Hallett] could have been maimed, injured, shot or dead."

But prosecutors secured testimony from Hallett and three other witnesses who said they saw at least Quilici, Volstad and Thelen beat Hallett that night. One witness, the bartender at KC's Cabin, said that she saw Quilici and Volstad kick and hit Hallett while he was handcuffed.

The bartender, Heather Miller, also testified Tuesday that Quilici approached her with a similar warning about keeping quiet.

"He made a motion to be quiet," Miller testified. "He said, 'Be quiet. They are going to be coming in and asking some questions.' "

Fox Lake police did not question any of the witnesses to the alleged attack except the three former officers, said Eric R. Collins, a former Spring Grove officer who first responded to the bar that night.

Quilici, Volstad and Pilati were given blank paper, told to detail their account of the evening, and turn the narrative into Fox Lake police whenever they were finished, Collins testified Wednesday.

Fox Lake police also failed to take pictures that night of Hallett, whose injuries included a fractured eye socket.

"His face looked like a pumpkin that had been kicked in on Halloween," Collins said.

Solano tried to attack the testimony of Miller, Cross and the bouncer at KC's Cabin, Greg Fisher, by making them admit that each of them initially told state investigators that they did not see anything.

After further pressure by Illinois State Police, each of the three told the stories that they testified to this week.

"I just wanted to stay out of the whole thing," Fisher said. "I didn't want to be involved."

Fisher said that while he was trying to stop the beating he twice threw himself in front of Hallett and, as a result, was kicked by Quilici.

"I was trying to protect [Hallett] from the kick," Fisher said. "I didn't want him to kick him anymore."


Quilici's defense is expected to begin this morning calling witnesses, which are expected to include Jessica Thelen, who prosecutors also charged in the incident.

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Ex-cop: Hallett hostile

www.nwherald.com/MainSection/286771300921677.php

WOODSTOCK – An irate and combative Ryan Hallett kicked one then-police officer in the groin, waved a 2 1/2-inch pocketknife inches from others' faces, and held his knife at the throat of a woman he had taken hostage, Brian Quilici told jurors during his own trial Thursday.

"[Hallett] said: 'I'm going to kill her and gut the rest of you,' " said Quilici, a former police officer charged with assaulting Hallett on Feb. 20, 2005. "He started tossing Jessica Thelen around like a rag doll. He was flipping her back and forth, pulling her backwards."

Quilici's testimony in his defense ended the third day of trial Thursday, when jurors also heard from co-defendants Thelen and former police officers Jerome Volstad and Ronald Pilati.

All four painted Hallett as the aggressor in the confrontation, and said that their actions were necessary to protect themselves.

Quilici, who previously was an officer with the Richmond and Spring Grove police departments, is expected to be cross-examined by prosecutors this morning. Quilici is being tried separately from the other three defendants, and could be sentenced to up to five years in prison if convicted of aggravated battery or official misconduct.

Thelen, Volstad, a former Lincolnshire and Spring Grove officer, and Pilati, who used to work for Spring Grove police, still are awaiting trial on the aggravated battery and related charges. Each of the three could be sentenced up to five years in prison if convicted on the charges.

On Thursday, the first day of Quilici's defense was able to call witnesses, jurors for the first time heard the co-defendants explanation of the alcohol-fueled fight.

Quilici's attorney Vincent Solano is trying to recover from two days of strong testimony from prosecution witnesses, who said that Quilici repeatedly kicked the face of a handcuffed Hallett and later told onlookers to lie about what they saw.

None of the co-defendants who testified Thursday said that they saw anyone kick or punch Hallett in the face during the early-morning incident outside KC's Cabin, a Fox Lake bar. Rather, Quilici said, Hallett's broken eye socket and massively swollen head were caused by officers smashing Hallett's face onto a gravel parking lot while trying to subdue him.

Quilici said that he did kick Hallett in the ribs shortly after Hallett, who was on the ground with the ex-officers all around him, waved his knife just inches from Quilici.

"I kicked him as hard as I could in the side," Quilici said to jurors. "I told him again to drop the knife. I needed him to drop the knife."

Pilati told jurors that a brief shouting match that began in the bar appeared to have ended until Hallett approached him while the former officers were walking out of the bar after it had closed.

"He walked directly towards me and said: 'You got me kicked out of the bar ...,' " Pilati said. "I told him that the night is over and to go home. Then he kicked me in the [groin]."

Hallett never mentioned kicking Pilati when he testified Tuesday, but did admit to displaying a knife to the men because he wanted them to leave him alone. Hallett also admitted that he had as many as 14 drinks that night.

Pilati, Volstad and Quilici all said Thursday that Hallett approached them in the parking lot and took a fighting stance, waving the knife just inches from them. Volstad and Pilati said they quickly called 911 to report Hallett's behavior and ask for backup, which the jury heard audio recordings of in court Thursday.

It was then that the co-defendants said Hallett grabbed Thelen, who was trying to stop a fight from occurring, and put her in a headlock and placed a knife to her throat. After minutes of struggling, the defendants said they managed to make Hallett drop the knife and handcuff his hands behind his back.

Thelen was emotional during her testimony and frequently dabbed at her eyes and nose with a tissue. She said she left immediately without talking to police about the incident because she was afraid, and didn't want Hallett to find out who she was or what car she drove.

What two state witnesses – the pub's bartender and Quilici's former friend who watched from her car – previously described as a vicious beating of Hallett, the co-defendants depicted as their efforts to protect Thelen and themselves.

"I kicked Hallett in the groin when he had me in a headlock and when he was on the ground," Thelen said. "I was trying to help what I knew to be off-duty police officer from letting this guy get up and hurt anybody, especially me."

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Quilici guilty in beating

www.nwherald.com/MainSection/319203078517466.php

WOODSTOCK – Witnesses say that Brian Quilici was irate and uncontrollable the night he viciously kicked a handcuffed man in the face, but the former Richmond police officer showed no emotion Monday evening when a jury found him guilty of all charges.

Sitting just feet from the man whose eye socket he shattered, Brian Quilici stared blankly at the courtroom floor while each of the 12 jurors confirmed that he was guilty of two counts of aggravated battery, mob action, official misconduct and obstructing justice.

"Brian Quilici said that night to Melissa Cross, 'I bet you never thought you would see that side of me,' " McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi said after hearing the verdict. "Well I'm glad that the jury got to see that side of him."

Quilici could be sentenced to up to five years in prison when he is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 6. Prosecutors said they were reviewing Quilici's lengthy history of run-ins with the law – which included other allegations of assault, drunk driving charges and domestic disturbances – before determining what length of prison sentence they would seek.

Quilici, along with former police officers Ronald Pilati, 34, and Jerome Volstad, 41, and co-defendant Jessica Thelen, 29, are accused of beating Ryan Hallett outside KC's Cabin near Fox Lake on Feb. 20, 2005. Pilati is a former Spring Grove officer, and Volstad used to work for Lincolnshire and Spring Grove police.

The four were involved in a fight with Hallett in the parking lot at KC's Cabin, a Fox Lake bar. It stemmed from a shouting match between Pilati and one of Hallett's friends and later escalated when Hallett approached them in the parking lot after the bar had closed around 3 a.m.

The former cops are accused of surrounding Hallett, who they say was carrying a knife, and kicking him repeatedly. Prosecutors said the former cops had lied about what really happened, and at least Quilici tried to make witnesses remain quiet about what they saw.

Pilati, Volstad and Thelen, who are being tried separately from Quilici, still are awaiting trial. If convicted of the most serious charge, each could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Hallett, who quietly stood outside the courtroom with a small grin after hearing the verdict, said that he hoped his case would end similar incidents in the future.

"I just hope that it is all done with," Hallett said. "It's harder now for anyone to try and do that again. It shows that somebody is going to pay the consequences of their actions."

Jurors, who included seven men and five women, declined comment on their decision, which ended the five-day trial. They deliberated for about five hours and 30 minutes.

Quilici, who has worked for both Richmond and Spring Grove police, also said that he had no comment.

Vincent Solano, who represented Quilici, said he planned to review the case before determining whether he would appeal the ruling.

"We respect the system," Solano said. "We have a jury system, and, although we do not agree with the jury's decision, that is what it is."

Quilici and co-defendants have repeatedly said that it was Hallett who was the aggressor during the incident. They said Hallett was waving a 2 1/2-inch pocket knife and, at one point, held Thelen in a headlock with a knife to her throat.

But three state witnesses – the pub's bartender, its bouncer, and Quilici's former girlfriend who says she saw the attack – testified that the Quilici viciously beat Hallett before and after handcuffing him.

Defense attorney Vincent Solano descried his client to jurors during closing arguments Monday as the "hero" who saved Jessica Thelen's life.

"[The state] picked the wrong side in this fight and now we have to make up for their mistakes," Solano said. "The saddest aspect of this case is that Brian Quilici is sitting over here and Ryan Hallett is sitting over there."

Nichole Owens, criminal chief of the McHenry County State's Attorney's office, said she believed Hallett's testimony, which was the first of the trial, was the most crucial for prosecutors.

She also told jurors during closing arguments that many people had to be lying in order to believe Quilici and his co-defendant's story.

"He has been deceptive since the moment he met officer Dawn DeServi at the scene that night until the moment he stepped off that witness stand," Owens said. "At some point ladies and gentlemen you have to ask: Is this defendant the unluckiest man in the world or is he just guilty?"

[superck]

I heard that Judge Condon ordered that Pilati and Volstad immediately be released from jail and granted a new trial because of slim ball Bianchi failed to disclose material evidence to defense attorneys. I never thought that these 2 were guilty!